


Dancing the Land

by ju4jen



Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: J2 AU, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-23
Updated: 2014-05-23
Packaged: 2018-01-26 06:28:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1678163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ju4jen/pseuds/ju4jen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Intergalactic Federal Agent Jared Padalecki has been given an opportunity that he couldn’t refuse - to work with the legendary Special Agent Mark Pellegrino on a murder case on the distant planet of Ulusk’hai.  He’s battled all his life to become a field agent despite the disadvantage of his heritage, but his ambitions and dreams might just be under threat.  Pellegrino is not the man Jared was expecting, the case is on father’s home planet bringing back memories and thoughts that Jared had thought long suppressed  and he has to work the case with the overly cocky but strangely alluring local police officer, Sheriff Ackles.<br/>A sci-fi/J2 retelling of Thunderheart.  Whilst there are similarities between the Uluskian culture and that of the Lakota,</p>
<p> I deliberately kept the more spiritual elements out of the fic out of respect.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing the Land

**Dancing the Land**

**by ju4jen**

 

 

The sliding doors opened out onto the space port’s large glass plaza.

Jared strode through the opening with air of confidence that was only skin deep.  He looked about him, head held high, eyes searching, but with a heart beating with abnormal speed and force. 

The arrivals’ lounge was mostly empty but for a lone figure tapping something into a dispensing machine.

“Agent Pellegrino,” Jared called out.

A fair haired human turned to face Jared, suit frayed and crumpled, shirt collar open and without a tie, clutching a can of soda.

“Ah! The saviour of Ulusk’hai! Our very own Uluskian agent!”  The voice from the other man was rough and mocking.

“I’m not…” Jared began to answer, his own tie beginning to feel tight about his throat.  The other man laughed brutally.

“Doesn’t matter if you are or if you’re not,” the man interrupted rudely. “There’s pedigree enough in there for someone to think you could be.” Agent Pellegrino smiled a twisted, bitter smile, then held out his hand.

Jared grabbed it, and shook it firmly. 

Pellegrino cocked a questioning eyebrow at him.

“Mark Pellegrino,” he introduced himself unnecessarily.

“Jared Padalecki,” Jared answered. “It’s an immense pleasure to work with you.”  He didn’t lie.  Pellegrino was an Intergalactic Federal Bureau legend.

“So we’ll get right to it…”  Pellegrino’s unshaven face split open into a wide smile.  “See if we can’t bag ourselves a killer without turning the situation into an excuse for an uprising.  Sod’s fucking law that it should happen just as I finally get the means to get off this godforsaken rock after all these years.”

He turned and started walking across the wide expanse of the plaza  towards a sign indicating an exit.

“I won’t lie to you.  It’s a tricky situation here.  The guys back at home are agitating just as badly as the Governor here to get it sorted quickly, and tactfully…”

Pellegrino laughed some more of his loud laugh and looked askance at Jared who had fallen in line at his left shoulder.

“I guess that’s why they sent you. Diplomacy isn’t a strength of mine.  Been here four years and they still hate my guts.”

Jared had heard the stories.  But still, Pellegrino got things done, solved cases; better than anyone else in the service.

“So what are you?  Part Uluskian?” 

Jared’s voice caught in his throat as he answered. “Half.”

“Yeah, that’ll do.  They’re so wound up about their fucking rights here.  Need someone who can relate, you get what I mean?”  He didn’t let Jared answer but that was good.  Jared didn’t really want to answer.

He didn’t want to confess that he knew very little about this planet; that he didn’t even want to acknowledge his Uluskian heritage.

***

“The body was found in the foothills of the Sanctuary.  But the guy’s human so the local law enforcement handed over the responsibility to the Feds – opened up a whole can of worms though.  I’ve got some sway with the local Uluskian council here but I couldn’t keep this one on the down low. Found the vic with a double Sun Wheel scratched in the earth beside him.”

“That’s the symbol for the Uluskian Freedom Fighters, right?  The UFF?”  Jared shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  Pellegrino flew the shuttle way too fast and erratically for Jared’s liking.

“Yeah, just spent the last four years trying to take those bastards down.  The main suspect is MiySha Collins – nasty son of a bitch.  I could finger him for most of the violent crimes around here but nothing sticks.  Anyway, the idea that a human is dead isn’t making the Governor or the settlers happy.  The local Ulusk’hai are also resenting the hell out of Feds treading all over their sacred land, and in the middle of it all, there’s a group of murder happy hooligans whose pleasure is in making sure there isn’t peace around here.”

Jared let the words wash over him as he watched the Uluskian landscape speed by.  It looked a lot like Earth, at least the small pockets that were left that hadn’t been developed into an urban sprawl – large expanse of flat, fertile ground and the scatter of human settlement and farms.

“You’re here to make it seem like the Feds give a damn about their precious traditions – hopefully get some of them to open up and tell us where the hell Collins is hiding out.”

Jared knew that.  He’d been briefed thoroughly before leaving Earth.  Didn’t mean he liked it, but the chance to work with Pellegrino was something he couldn’t refuse.  Working with a big profile name would do him good.  Might make people ignore the stippled markings that ran down his own face and neck from his brow.  Make people see past the undeniable marking of Ulusk’hai; markings that were even now barely hidden by only just regulation length hair.

Pellegrino fell silent as they reached the check point.  Jared could see the purple haze of the containment shield and the tall sentry posts and saw, as the shuttle was brought down, the human guards.  Beyond the electromagnetic fog, the ground rose up into rolling hills.

As the shuttle stopped, both men stepped outside, pulling their ID and badges out of their jacket pockets. Pellegrino made some jokes which got everyone laughing, obviously a familiar face – both IDs and badges were largely ignored, but Jared’s attention was caught elsewhere.

An old Mark II Star Hopper had pulled up on the opposite side of check point.  The tension between the Uluskian and the human guards who stepped towards it was palpable; the shuttle was searched thoroughly until an all-clear was given to pass through the gates out of the Sanctuary. 

The Uluskian driver turned to stare at Jared as he passed out of the Sanctuary and into the Settler’s land, an expression of disdain and hatred on his face.  Jared turned back to Pellegrino embarrassed and uncomfortable.

“It’s a different world in here,” Pellegrino muttered as they both slid back into their seats.  “It’s a fucking mess.”

Jared could understand what he meant as they pulled through the gates and up into Sanctuary air.  Immediately, Jared could see neglect and decay.  The land wasn’t farmed; the houses, prefabricated and unpainted were clustered together too closely at the foot of the green hills, and the brown scrub land between was scattered with broken down machinery and old furniture. The land road was nothing but a dirt track.  There was very little sign of technology; it was like going back several hundred years.

“You’d think they’d tidy it up a bit - have a bit of pride – and join the rest of us in the twenty-fourth century.  Maybe even build something substantial and not squat in these temporary buildings,” Pellegrino continued to complain.

Jared felt the shame he had carried with him all his life, and took Pellegrino’s words personally. 

***

“Shit, I should have guessed the fucker would be onto us this quickly,” Pellegrino suddenly swore just as the shuttle flew at break neck speed over another tightly clustered settlement.  Jared had been wondering idly why the Uluskian’s living here didn’t expand onto the nearby hills but every single village or town were balanced precariously onto the narrow strips of flat land that incorporated the river’s flood plains, allowing the steeply sided slopes of the grassy hills to remain empty. He knew building on slopes wasn’t easy but he had visited plenty of places on Earth with houses perched like playing card towers on hills and mountains.

Pellegrino’s words, a warning light and the alarm brought Jared’s attention back to his companion, who was still cussing.

Jared turned in his seat to look behind.  Another shuttle, marked with high vis orange stripes, was flashing at them;  US34 Law written across it’s bow.

For a moment, Jared thought the other agent was going to ignore the obvious flag down, but then Pellegrino sighed, slowing the shuttle and then bringing it down to the ground.  He didn’t make a move to get out though, so Jared stayed where he was too.  He watched as a figure dressed casually in denim and plaid stepped out of the other vehicle.    Jared couldn’t see high enough through the window to get a look at his face, but there was a chain hanging around the man’s chest heavy with a double Sun Wheel and a pin badge declaring the man a US34 Law Sheriff – Ulusk’hai Sanctuary 34.  This had to be the local police.

“Goddam bastard!  Hasn’t he got anything better to do?” Pellegrino continued to mutter under his breath as the man walked up to his window.  Pellegrino waited for a moment, deliberately ignoring the police officer (or so Jared thought), before sliding the plexi-shield open.

“Good afternoon, Officer Ackles,” Pellegrino smiled an unpleasant smile.

“Agent Pellegrino!” acknowledged a deep, smooth voice.  “Can you please step out of the vehicle?”  The words were unhurried and unflustered.

“You have no jurisdiction over a Federal agent,” Pellegrino offered without moving.

“How am I to know that you’re a federal agent?” came the smooth reply.  “Step out of the vehicle, Pellegrino, and give me your license and your ID.”

Pellegrino huffed, rolling his eyes at Jared, but then released the side door and stepped out.  This was obviously not the first time this had happened.

“And your companion,” continued the voice, with a hint of amusement.

Jared unfolded his legs immediately and stepped into the cool air. 

“ID please,” the lawman demanded, holding out a hand.

Jared handed it over, and looked into the man’s face.

He was nearly as tall as Jared himself and could have passed for human if it weren’t for the heavy spice coloured stippling around the edges of his face and the startlingly alien green eyes.  Despite being humanoid – Jared with half his DNA Uluskian could at least disguise his alien features - this man could never be mistaken for a human, not ever. Jared’s breath was whisked away by the sheer different beauty of the man.

“This is my partner, Agent Jayrred Padalecki,” Pellegrino announced.  The lawman’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at Pellegrino’s heavy accented, Uluskian pronounciation of Jared’s name.  Jared cringed, as he came under the sharp scrutiny of those exotic eyes.

“The Uluskian Agent?” the officer asked.  “I heard they were sending someone.  Maybe you could help.  The body is still on T’llen Land, and we need to cleanse it soon.  Any chance of expediting the removal?”

“Er… Tillen land,” Jared repeated dumbly and badly.

The green eyed gaze intensified, surely noting how Jared’s hair fell across the faded stippling across his brow.  The officer’s mouth twisted for a moment then he sighed in resignation.

“Uhuh!” he concluded dismissively and turned back to Pellegrino.  “You were doing one hundred and fifty decilengths per chronosecs, in a one hundred and twenty speed limit sector.  That’s an automatic fine of one thousand credits.  Just take your payment to the UL34 Law HQ, and watch your speed in future.”

“You know I don’t have to pay these!”  Pellegrino took the ticket when it was held out to him but crumpled it quickly and threw it into the car.

“I know,” the officer smiled, “but, hey,  I enjoy  thinking about all the paperwork you have to fill in every time you get one of these, payment or not.”  He nodded his head and turned quickly back to his vehicle with a laugh.

“Fucking bastard,” Pellegrino repeated loudly as the lawman’s shuttle roared into life and lifted into the air.

Jared could only stare in admiration.  Pissing all over a federal agent was a brave thing to do.  Officer Ackles had just done it as if he didn’t give a fuck in the world.  

***

Jared’s quarters at the Fed base were basic but clean.  The small cluster of rooms actually belonged to an Uluskian bar on the outskirts of one of those crowded settlements some thirty decilengths from the gate.  From his window he could only see other buildings with the dry scrub land between, and the imposing shadows of the tall hills beyond.  It felt claustrophobic.

Jared splashed water on his face in the tiny refresher and gazed at himself in the mirror.

He’d had a skin fading procedure just before entering the Fed’s recruitment process a few years ago, but here in the clear air of Ulusk’hai, the marks looked darker than ever; certainly not as distinct as ones borne by Officer Ackles but still…

He felt sick. An image of condemning green eyes in front of him. 

He had always hated the stippling; thought it made him look ugly, inferior.  He knew he had had to fight a thousand percent harder than full blooded humans to achieve his goals because people took one look at the markings and his height and made assumptions.

Strange, then, how he had found the rash of spots curling up from the lawman’s neck really attractive.  And even stranger how he was embarrassed by the obvious disdain and dismissal shoved his way when the man had realised so quickly that the hoped for Uluskian Liaison Officer was a disappointment.

***

The hum of the police cordon clicked quiet for a second as Jared waved his ID across it.  As soon as he passed through, the hum resumed with another click.  He quickly strode across the grass to a small hollow.  The body was already decomposing.

Pellegrino had somewhere else to be.  So after studying the files, Jared had taken one of the shuttles out to the murder site alone.  He wanted to make his own observations before the body was removed.  He’d kept carefully to the speed limit.

There was something strange about the body – it was too tidy, the angle of the limbs awkward.  The interlocking circles of the double Sun Wheel, scratched into the earth, had already weathered and also looked misplaced, although why he thought any symbol next to a dead body would look natural, Jared didn’t rightly know.  It was almost as if he wasn’t quite recalling something correctly and that bothered him.  He really should have done some more research for this job, or at least turned it down.  This wasn’t where he was supposed to be.  And, Pellegrino, his sole reason for taking the case, was not living up to expectation.

“Body was moved after death,” a familiar voice came from behind him.  Jared shot round – he hadn’t heard the other man approach.

“File says he was lasered as he ran across this ground,” Jared argued back at the green eyes that were squinting up at him.

“You see any evidence of a chase?” Officer Ackles asked curiously.  Jared snapped his jaw closed and considered.

“No, and a body wouldn’t fall like this, not while he was running,” Jared admitted looking down at the way the arms of the victim had been trapped under his torso.

“There’s red grit on his toe caps; on his hands too.  The river bank’s the only place you see dirt like that in this Sanctuary,” 

Jared was aware that Ackles was watching Jared’s response to his words very carefully and he was uncomfortable under that gaze.  There had been no mention of red dirt in the official report on the crime scene, and that begged the question why not.  Because it was very evidently there – he was seeing it with his own eyes.

“The double Sun Wheel is drawn badly,” Jared heard the uncertainty in his own voice and was pleased to get a nod of agreement from Ackles.

“The double Sun Wheel is very important symbol for us – no Uluskian with any feelings of loyalty to their people would mark it out with such uneven spokes, and certainly not the UFF.”  

“Your boss know you’re out here?”  Ackles said after a few moments as Jared contemplated the body.

Jared turned sharply to look at the Uluskian, unhappy at the implication.   Ackles was still squinting up at him.

“Collins shooting a human trespasser is totally in line with his previous behaviour and stated aims for the UFF,” Jared suddenly felt the need to defend Pellegrino and the organisation he worked for.

“Convenient, that,” Ackles responded.  “But this isn’t what it seems, because this isn’t a trespasser – humans are allowed on the river flats, and Collins had nothing to do with it, he’d have marked the wheels with more pride.”

Jared thought for a moment, then took out his digital recorder and started taking pictures of the scene – to replace those pictures that were curiously absent from the file.  Ackles watched him work without moving or speaking.  Jared had a very uneasy feeling about this case.

Jared finally looked up at the lawman as he took the last picture, and gained a slight nod of approval.  He drew in a breath and then asked

“What is Tillen land?”

“T’llen land,” Ackles repeated, emphasizing the shortened first syllable.  “By the suns, you really don’t know your Uluskian heritage at all, do you?  Are you truly an Uluskian or are your markings just make up?”

“Half Uluskian,” Jared admitted nearly choking on the confession. 

“Brought up as human, I guess,” Ackles said sadly.   He spat into the earth.

“T’llen land are the hills that T’hurot set aside for the Ulusk’hai for them to run, sleep, dance and breathe in. They are not for labor, nor for fighting.  The body is desecrating the sacred soil and it needs to be cleansed – just as soon as the body is removed.”   There was a burning pride in Ackles words, as he spoke clearly.  Jared looked at the man’s markings; the dark rash of earth coloured spots that framed his face; the short hair, swept away from his brow, to show the markings more prominently; the paraphernalia of Uluskian culture hanging around his neck; the inhuman green eyes.

“Are you UFF?” Jared asked.

Ackles laughed.  “I doubt the UFF would welcome the local sheriff into their ranks. It is a colonial government appointment after all.  But I am Ulusk’hai and I am not ashamed.”

Jared felt the words cut deep.  He was silent as he followed Ackles down to their respective shuttles.

“Better keep the evidence to yourself for now,” Ackles called to him as he neared his vehicle. 

Jared waved a hand, but didn’t answer.

When Pellegrino later asked him where he had been, as he arrived back at the Fed’s base, he told his boss that he had just been, you know, orientating himself.  He didn’t know why he lied.  Or rather he did, but he simply couldn’t comprehend why someone else’s suspicions would make him doubt his own loyalties

Suddenly he just wished he could be back at home, on earth; that his ambition to be more hadn’t led him here.   He was uneasy with the case, uneasy with Pellegrino’s easy accusations against the UFF, uneasy that Ulusk’hai was unravelling his carefully built human persona.

***

He dreamt of his father for the first time in many years.

“Look at me, Jayrred,” his dream father had shouted at him, as he was dragged away by the police.  “I am Ulusk’hai and this is who you are!”

In reality, Jared’s father had been almost comatose with alcohol when they come to remove him from their front porch.   Jared’s mother had flint-hard eyes as she and her son watched from the doorway and her hand had squeezed Jared’s until it hurt.  His father hadn’t said a word.  Jared couldn’t remember a time when he had ever heard his father speak.

His father’s dream words made him feel guilty all the same.

***

There had been a breakthrough in the hunt for Miysha Collins.

Jared’s presence in the Sanctuary had caused something of a stir, and he had been subjugated to curious stares as the bar they were rooming in slowly filled up with curious Uluskians. 

Jared had nearly hit Pellegrino when the other man had tried to brush Jared’s long hair away from his face, and he had grimaced every time Pellegrino called out “Jayrred” to him with that frankly awful Uluskian accent.

But it had paid off.  A small Uluskian woman had stuttered and cried, and begged for understanding and mercy for her son who had been led astray, as she sobbed against Jared’s chest but had finally given up an address.

The twelve man strong federal task team immediately swarmed out of the bar.  Jared followed, unhappy and strangely lacking in motivation.  At this point he was more than convinced that Collins hadn’t actually done the murder – well, this murder anyway -  but he was still unable to voice his concerns to his partner.

Of course, Collins was long gone but there was evidence that he’d been hiding out in the small shack for a little while.  That knowledge didn’t appease Pellegrino who then barked viciously at anyone who attempted to talk to him for the rest of the night, and who took exception to the milling crowds of Uluskians who had come out to see the Feds work.  The local sheriff’s office was eventually called when Pellegrino’s insults caused unrest and some throwing of insults in the Fed’s direction.

Jared, who had been overseeing the crime scene recording, watched surreptitiously as Officer Ackles efficiently and calmly sent the crowds packing.  

Jared wandered over, just as Ackles was setting up a cordon around the shack.

“Guess he wasn’t here then,” Ackles stated after acknowledging Jared’s presence.

“Nah,” Jared answered awkwardly shuffling his feet.  He wasn’t entirely sure what had drawn over to this man.

“Good!” Ackles laughed and Jared admired him all over again for not caring how he sounded.

“You shouldn’t say stuff like that,” he had to say, though, concerned. “Pellegrino would be delighted to lock you up for having UFF sympathies.”

“Payback for the all speeding tickets?” Ackles still laughed.

No, Ackles really didn’t care.  Jared tried to keep his smile to himself.

“Found out who the vic was?”  Ackles then asked, more seriously.

“Why? Do you?”  Jared countered.

“Might do!” Two very green eyes gazed up at Jared in amusement.  “Meet me tomorrow out at River’s Bend,  at 10 chronos.”  He flipped a switch and the cordon suddenly started humming, separating the two men.

“Oh, and Old Man Beayvver wants to speak with you – don’t know why,” the Sheriff suddenly said, shrugging, “but I’ll take you out to his place after.”  

He didn’t wait for Jared to answer, but turned swiftly back to his shuttle.  Jared stared after him bewildered.

***

That night Jared dreamt of Officer Ackles.

It was vivid and erotic and unwelcome, but infinitely better than the dream with this father.

***

River’s Bend was just that – a bend in the river.  There was nothing but the river, the red banks and then the rising green hills.

Jared waited for nearly half a chrono before Ackles turned up, and was at the point of leaving when the pulse of a shuttle’s engine penetrated through his annoyance.

Ackles swaggered over to him, cocky and sure and incredibly beautiful.  Of course, Jared would suddenly find Uluskian physiology incredibly attractive – life was totally cruel like that.  He tried to school his expression into one of irritation rather than lust but knew he had failed when Ackles, damn him, just laughed at him in greeting.

“I see you found the footprints. Hasn’t rained here for a few days,” the sheriff commented eventually.

“Laser damage too,” Jared smirked at the surprise on Ackles’ face, and he jumped down the bank towards the river motioning Ackles to follow him.

There on the short cliff right at the river’s bend, were three long scorch marks.

“Not bad, P’nu,” Ackles declared as he ran his long fingers over the burns.

“So this was the kill site,” Jared said and then frowned. “What the hell is PooNu?”

“P’nu?  Nothing much,” Ackles grinned but continued on smoothly. “I was trawling down the river yesterday when I found the footprints…”

“What were you doing investigating a federal case?”  Jared asked,  letting the P’Nu drop.

“Trying to stop a miscarriage of justice,” Ackles answered simply.  “And perhaps insurrection and, you know, war?”

Jared frowned some more, deeper this time.

“Last night was not an isolated incident.  The Feds have been trampling all over T’llen land and it’s causing anger and resentment - not really a sensitive lot, your bunch, and your partner is the worst of them all – and well…” Ackles left the words hanging but Jared got the idea.  Ulusk’hai had always been a problem.  They had never really accepted the human settlers and more blood had been shed on the planet’s colonization than anywhere else in the galaxy -  it was partly the reason why Uluskians held such a reviled place in society.

“And you’re the one to stop it?” Jared asked a little sarcastically.  Ackles grinned back at him, his sparkling eyes at odds with seriousness of the situation.

“I do what I can!”  Jared’s jaw dropped as Ackles winked at him – actually winked at him.  It was a welcome change from the initial disapproval but Jared found the way the crinkles at the outer corners of his eyes made his stomach flutter like a bird trying to take to wing.

“Y..y..you said you knew who he was?” Jared stuttered in response.

“Michael Ferman,” Ackles answered straight away. 

“Who?”

“Michael Ferman.  He’s an astral geologist.”  

Jared grabbed his recorder from his pant’s pocket and started to take pictures of this new crime scene.

“How did you find that out?” Jared asked as he checked the images.

“Missing persons, and Face Rec,” Ackles was slowly combing the river shore as he spoke.  “Haven’t you guys done the same searches?”

An edge crept into the officer’s previously genial tone as he looked up at the Federal Agent, no smiles now.  Jared coloured.  He hadn’t been in the Bureau for very long but even he could see how badly the case had been run so far.  He was appalled at Pellegrino’s sheer ineptitude – or perhaps his sheer unwillingness to look at the facts in his determination to catch Miysha Collins.  He shrugged ruefully.  He wasn’t sure what to answer.  A dark suspicion was beginning to form in the back of his mind, but he wasn’t prepared to share that with the judgmental Sheriff.

He squirmed under Ackles’ scrutiny but didn’t look away.

“Come on, P’Nu,” Ackles finally said.  “You’ve got a hot date with Beayvver!”

Jared pocketed his recorder, and followed the sheriff back up the bank.   He suddenly felt very unhappy that Ackles might also have doubts about his professionalism and about him.

***

Jared parked his vehicle behind Ackles’ police shuttle.  Old Man Beayvver, like every other Uluskian Jared had met since he had arrived planet-side, lived in a tumbled down shack situated in glorious isolation some fifteen decilengths further up the river.  Well, the tumbled down shack was similar to every other dwelling in the Sanctuary but the lack of closely packed houses was quite a change.  The building still clung to the river bank,  shadowed by the close green hills.   Sudden realisation prodded Jared’s understanding sharply.

“You won’t build on the hills because they are T’llen!” Jared suddenly exclaimed.

“T’llen land is for running, sleeping, breathing, dancing and fun, P’Nu,” Ackles answered.  “No working, fighting, not the everyday grind of living.”

“So your houses cling together on narrow flood plains,” Jared responded.

“Nowhere else to go,” Ackles muttered as they both spotted the old man who was stood waiting in the doorway of the building.  “Humans drove us from our living lands long ago.”  He stepped forward and greeted the old man in a one armed hug, then stood back to look at Jared.

“Welcome home, Jayrred,”  Old Man Beayvver said and beckoned him to walk inside. Jared felt a thrill down his spine as he heard his name finally spoken with a pure pronunciation, the rolled consonants in the middle elongating the sounds.  Ackles’ pulled a face, a smirk, as Jared passed him to follow the old man, but he felt Ackles’ warmth close behind him as he passed into the gloom.

The interior belied the bleak exterior.  It was tidy, cosy with furniture obviously old but well kept.  Beayvver gestured to the large couch but went walked beyond the living area to a white kitchen unit in the far right corner.

“Can I get you young’uns  a drink?” he called behind him. There was some awkward confusion as Ackles and Jared decided where to sit, but they both called out ‘yes’.  The drinks, when they arrived, proved to simple beers.  It was cool, and fresh, and took Jared’s mind off the touch of Ackles knee against his own thigh as they both settled on the sofa, side by side.

Beayvver sat himself opposite, on an upright wooden chair, with a smile peering through the grey beard, chattering to Ackles in his native Uluskian.  Jared let the words wash over him – if they wanted to be rude, well so be it. He sat up balancing on the edge of the couch – obviously ill at ease – whilst Ackles sprawled across the furniture, obviously relaxed.

“Don’t suppose you speak Uluskian, P’nu?” Ackles suddenly asked in standard.  Beayvver chuckled gently.

Jared just stared at the sheriff with narrowed eyes.  Was the sheriff trying to provoke him?

Ackles smirked

“You’ve returned home at the right time, Jayrred,” Beayvver said into the uncomfortable silence that followed.

Actually, Jared felt a very long way from home, but he turned politely to the old man anyway, eyebrows raised in question.

“We need young ones like you; Ulusk’hai who know about the human worlds - to fight for us,” Old Jim Beayvver said, grey beard wrapped around a sincere smile and eyes burning with a bright fervour.

“I’m not…” Jared gasped but the old man’s words had stolen the air from the room.  His heart and stomach seemed to plummet to the ground.  He hadn’t expected this – he had supposed the old man had some information about the case, not the passion of a preacher trying to convert.  This wasn’t what he wanted.

“Do you have evidence about the murder?” Jared forced out, voice rough and tight with panic.

Beayvver waved his hand dismissively at Jared’s question and shifted in his seat as he faced the two men on the couch.  He nursed his own beer, but never took his eyes off Jared.  The expectations hung heavy in the room.   Jared was abruptly on his feet and heading for the door.

“Hey,” his arm was caught firmly by Ackles. 

“I’m not…”  Jared began.  “I’m not Uluskian.  And I am an Intergalactic Federal Agent.”   He tried to shrug off the hold on him, but Ackles’ grip was steady.

“What do you think he’s trying to say to you, P’Nu?” Ackles asked insistently, placing himself in front of the door.

“Sedition,” Jared spat out.

“For a human, you have a remarkable set of Uluskian markings, boy,” Beayvver said through the gloom.  “And there are more ways of fighting for the rights of Ulusk’hai than those adopted by the UFF!”

Jared paused in his struggles to get free.

“You’re not entirely oblivious to what you see about you,” Ackles spoke quietly but with strength, his green, green eyes focused directly up into Jared’s face.  “I’m no card carrying member of the UFF either, but man, you’ve gotta be able to see what human colonisation has done to our world!”

Jared thought of the tumbledown of buildings clinging to the river’s edge, and then of the wide, spacious farms, surrounded by lush, fertile ground lying just outside the Sanctuary’s boundary.  He thought of his father – eyes dulled with hopelessness:  He thought of the insults he had faced when he was younger, the sly, snide glances he still got.

“I can’t stay to hear this,” he muttered and pulled again.  Ackles let go this time but Jared got no further than the door.  Beayvver spoke as Jared hesitated.

“Maybe we weren’t so advanced as humans, but we had a good world here once.  We watched the passing of our seasons in the growth of our crops, we ate the food we had toiled to put on our plates, we were able to run, breathe, dance on T’llen once our work was done and take pride in who we were.  Then the humans came and coveted our rich land, and told us they were magnanimous because they didn’t take our hills. And we fought for our lives because our lives were once good, and we were beaten down and spat on, and still we were told to be grateful because humans didn’t want our T’llen lands.  Now we have no way of feeding our children except for that which humans deign to give us, and we have lost the length of our year because nothing grows in these thin soils by the river, and we no longer have pride to run, breathe and dance on T’llen.  Those with ambition leave to seek their fortune, and we do not hear if they found it or not.  Only a few are left to remember their parent’s stories of the past and only a few have listened.”   Beayvver had risen to his feet as he intoned words that seemed to come from somewhere deep within him.  At the last he reached out and touched Ackles shoulder, the two of them standing together, shoulder to shoulder like sentinels.

Jared couldn’t stand it any longer, and practically ran from the shack.

***

“So what does P’nu mean?” Jared asked as Ackles walked out into the bright sunlight a few moments, his green eyes almost closed in the glare.

Ackles laughed but without humour

Jared waited expectantly. He hadn’t gone far; just done to the river bank where the cold water smelled of ozone.

“P’nu is a humanised Uluskian – one who has lost his way and has never danced on the T’llen,” Ackles lifted his chin to get a better look into Jared’s face.

“Oh,” Jared failed to mask his disappointment.

“What did you think it meant?” Ackles seemed taken aback at Jared’s response.

“Um… I don’t know…” Jared stuttered.  And it was true, he didn’t, but he had hoped that it wasn’t the insult it so obviously was.

Ackles joined him on the bank, where he was staring into the dark waters.

“My father was a drunk and an addict.  Every slanderous insult that the children threw at me in the playground, was true of him.  He was feckless, couldn’t keep down a job, would disappear from my and my mother’s lives without thought or a care only to turn up again wanting money, food.”

“Do you have any good memories of him?” Ackles asked gently now.

“None.  All he ever gave me were these,” he gestured angrily at his face, “ and my height and no way of hiding the blood that flowed through my veins.”

“I can take you visit hundreds, thousands, of men like your father,” Ackles said.  “And there are hundreds, thousands, more across Ulusk’hai and throughout the galaxy.  When we stop breathing the T’llen air, we seem to lose all sense of who we are, and that leaves us like filth on the ground.”

“You haven’t!”  Jared turned to face his companion.  Ackles was staring up into the hills, his beauty shining out in the morning light of Ulusk’hai’s twin suns.  Jared was captivated.

Ackles grinned, “I still run, breath and dance in the T’llen.”  He grabbed Jared’s hand and started tugging. “Come on!  Run with me!”  Jared planted his feet squarely on the ground as his hand slipped from the other man’s grasp, but Ackles didn’t pause.  He started to run up the slopes with a whoop.

Jared continued to stand there, watching his back, slowly bringing his breathing back in line. 

Then without even thinking, he took off, his long legs striding out to catch the other man up.

***

By the time Jared caught up, Ackles had fallen to his knees on the very peak of the hill.  The grass was long, and susurrating in the light breeze, and felt soft in Jared’s hands as he sank down to the ground beside him.  Ackles’ rich voice was intoning words that Jared didn’t recognise.  A prayer perhaps. But it didn’t matter, he let the words wrap around him, as he stared out over the hills.  It smelled clean and fresh, and the hills rolled for endless decilengths before him. 

“Is there supposed to be some kind of magic up here?”  Jared asked as Ackles finally fell silent.

Ackles gave him a sideways glance through long lashes then breathed out an exaggerated sigh.

“Because, it’s beautiful and all, but doesn’t make me feel any more Uluskian!”  Jared continued.

“That’s because the human half of you is soulless, P’Nu!”  Ackles retorted in return.  He got up, graceful as a cat.  “Come on!”

“Where to?” Jared asked, because there was nothing in those hills but more grassy slopes.

“Does there have to be a destination?”  Ackles asked.  

***

They walked for hours – or at least it seemed so to Jared.  Up over brows of the hills and down into the valleys between them, jumping over streams which gurgled and giggled, and then back up to where the hills met the sky, where long winged birds wheeled in ever increasing circles, their songs a falling candence.  They didn’t say anything.  They would stop, every now and then, to look out on more hills, breathing in the air deeply.

Jared had never really been one for the countryside. He had lived in the city all his life, and had felt no need for green things. He felt a little sticky and awkward in his suit, and he stumbled across the grassy ground.  Not like Ackles who strode across the landscape as if it was moulding itself to his every need.   Jared began to feel a little envious – there was something here in these hills that was offering Ackles succour.  His eyes were brighter, his cheeks lightly flushed, his markings darkened.   He walked his Sanctuary with a surety of who he was and it seemed as if he belonged to the very earth beneath their feet.

Jared stopped abruptly when he realised that Ackles had spun round and was now looking with some amusement at him.

“What?”  Jared asked and was then startled when the Sheriff approached him with intent clearly marked in his eyes.

“You’re not exactly dressed for a hike across the T’llen,” Ackles sniggered, and reached out to pull at Jared’s tie.

“Didn’t exactly realise that a hike across the T’llen was on my schedule today,” Jared answered mildly.

“Get rid of it!” Ackles ordered, as Jared took over loosening the offending article and then tugged it over his head.

“Hmmm…” Ackles responded as the tie was dropped to the ground.  He remained standing very close to Jared, and suddenly Jared wanted… just wanted, his cock beginning to fill, and his breath shortening.  Ackles let his hand rest on Jared’s chest for an instant…

… and then he spun round and started marching the way they had come.

“You’re looking good, P’Nu!”  Ackles called behind him.  “There’s more colour on your cheeks!”

Jared huffed in astonishment.  He wasn’t exactly sure what had happened but suddenly he laughed.

“My name’s Jared,”  Jared shouted back as he ran to catch up.

“Nope, your name is Jayrred – not going to foul my mouth with some bastardized human version of the name your Uluskian father gave you – don’t care if he was a deadbeat or no!”  Ackles turned to him, his usual smirk in place.

Jared thought about protesting but was actually feeling too relaxed to do so.

“Fine,” he concluded, and was pleased to see surprise cross Ackles’ face.  “As long as you stop calling me P’Nu!”

Ackles’ answering grin was miles wide and as bright as the sunlight.  Jared felt his stomach swoop and heat begin to pool low down in his core.

“Great!  And I’m Jenssen – although you haven’t got a hope in hell of pronouncing it right with your mangled human accent!”

“Hey,” Jared protested. “Stop dissing my mother’s heritage!”

Jenssen shouted out a laugh, and then carried on walking.

Jared turned the word in his mouth several times, practising the name.  The elongated hiss clumsy between his lips, but he was going to work at it.

“Jenssen,” he called once he thought he got it right.  “Wait up!”

He didn’t need to see the other man’s face to know that his attempt wasn’t perfect, but Jenssen Ackles was still smiling once Jared had caught up.  And it was a genuine smile, with no trace of a smirk.

***

Jim Beayvver was waiting for them with more beers when they finally returned to the shack, the sun setting with dark golden lights behind the hills.

Jared was as straight with the man as he could be.

“I am an intergalactic Federal Agent and I won’t be party to anything that is illegal or seditious,”  he stated clearly and confidently.

“I can respect that,” Beayvver answered.  “My intent is not to put you in an awkward position.  But you have a chance here to do something that is right.”

Jared accepted the beer and perched on the front of his shuttle.

“The UFF use criminal means to spread their message – trespass, destruction of property, violence, murder.  I don’t necessarily mean Collins, but others across Ulusk’hai.  You have been down this path before, and it has never ended well – not for the human colonists nor the Uluskians.”  Jared momentarily wondered where his new found confidence came from, but Beayvver was already answering.

“Which is why Uluskians, like Jenssen here, who have rejected the message of the UFF and yet still hold true to their Uluskian blood, and those, like you, who know the ways of the humans, are our hope for the future.”

“You are a good man, Jayrred,” Jenssen added. “You know we are in the right!”

Jared stared both men down. 

“One step at a time,” he said finally.  “First, we need to find out why a geologist was murdered.”

Beayvver nodded.

“He was murdered on the river bank.  Moved to T’llen land.”  Jared summarised what they knew.

“An act that would pollute the sacredness of our hills,” Beayvver commented.

“A human killing then.  Someone who didn’t care about T’llen land or who was deliberately sending a message of hate,” Jenssen chimed in.

“He was a long way upstream,” Jared pondered.  “Was he travelling upstream or down?”

“We examined the murder site – there was nothing there that would be of interest to him and downstream are the settlements,”  Jenssen sat down beside him on the warm metal plate of the shuttle and took a sip of his beer.

“Upstream then,” Beayvver settled.

Both the younger men thought for a moment and then both nodded.  The light was beginning to fade now.

“Tomorrow,” Jared resolved.  “We’ll fly up and see what there is to see.”

 Jenssen nodded again in agreement but then countered, “Ferman was driving a land vehicle.  We’ll take my rover.”

Jared pulled a face at that. 

Tomorrow then.

***

Pellegrino was elated, when Jared returned to the base, but not because he was pleased to see tall Uluskian Liaison officer.

A tip off earlier that day had led him straight to Collins, who was now in custody.

“Guess we can all finally get off this rock, and return to civilisation,” the older man whacked Jared on the back in delight.   Jared smiled falsely but then took a deep breath.

“Sir, there’s no evidence that Collins is the perpetrator,” Jared announced.

Pellegrino paused in his celebrations and looked weirdly at Jared.

“Not turning native are you?”  he said after a few awkward moments.

“No,” Jared answered too quickly, “It’s just that Ackles…”

“It’s just, what?  Seems you been spending too much time with that annoying little shit of a sheriff,” Pellegrino bit back. 

“He… it’s just… well, he does seem to have a point… there’s evidence that’s not been officially logged,” Jared nearly mentioned all the pictures on his recorder but the cold fury in Pellegrino’s eyes stopped him.

“Listen here, Jayrred,” Pellegrino leant in and snarled out Jared’s name so that it sounded like an insult.  Jared started to take umbrage.  “This is a tricky situation.  The UFF have been causing us a lot of trouble.  People have died, property damaged.  They are an ornery people these Uluskians – millions of square decilengths of space and they couldn’t fucking share, and they are still griping and grumbling when we let them keep their sacred land.  The colonists are feeling uneasy, and the Governor is on my back to sort this out. Don’t forget, I’ve been here for years and I am so close, so close Padalecki, to getting back to civilisation with at least some gain from my four years here.   Doesn’t matter if Collins committed this murder or not, he is certainly guilty of a lot of other crimes, and being locked away means we have one filthy Uluskian off our hands.  Don’t start getting all sentimental about your people, Padalecki.  One hint of Uluskian sympathies and you’ll be out of the bureau before you can braid your hair.”    The threat was very clear and Jared closed his mouth abruptly.

“Come now, Padalecki,” Pellegrino wrapped his arm around Jared shoulders.  “You’ve worked very hard to get here – an Uluskian field agent.  Who knew that could ever happen, eh?  Don’t give it all up for a grassy rock half way across the galaxy from your real home.  Don’t waste this opportunity for some pretty green eyes!”

Jared violently shrugged off the heavy arm, jaw tightening with anger, but he stopped his words just in time.

Then he said, “I suppose so.”

“That’s my boy,” Pellegrino ginned.

Jared didn’t wait for more, he turned and fled to his room.

***

Later that night, as he was preparing for bed, he looked at himself in the mirror and didn’t, for a moment, recognise the reflection staring back at him.  He had always been pale, but there was faint flush across his cheeks, and his skin tone was darkening, particularly his Uluskian markings.  He brushed his hair off his face with a hand to get a clearer look.  It was if he had never had the fading procedure, the markings returning to their tawny colour.  He supposed that being out in the sun all day would do that to his skin, and he started to mutter something derogatory about Sheriff Ackles marching him miles over the hills when he remembered that he had gone willingly.  He was standing taller too,  not really needing to slouch to draw attention away from his height, and his eyes stared back at him with a new confidence.

Jenssen hadn’t answered his question about the magic of T’llen land.

But surely not?

He shook his hair loose and returned to the bedroom. He bundled up the files into one pile and dumped them on the desk.  He had some more pieces of the jigsaw now, having spent a couple of hours searching through the Sanctuary Entry records.  Michael Ferman had been invited into the Sanctuary by Osric Ch’au, the Sanctuary 34 school teacher and widely considered to be one of Miysha Collins Lieutenants.  The connection with the UFF seemed to link Collins back to the murder, but Jared still wasn’t convinced that Collins would have left such obviously disrespectful evidence.  Something else was going on here. 

Jared resolved to talk to Ch’au before he met with Jenssen for their trip up river. 

He got under his covers and was asleep in minutes.

He dreamt again of green eyes, and a hard body, but this time they were laying on the slopes of  T’llen land, and as Jenssen pushed inside of him, Jared felt as though his DNA was being tied and tangled into the soft tall leaves of the grass until he could no longer tell if he was Jayrred or T’llen.

He woke as he came, dampness spreading over the front of his sweats. 

He could still smell the sweet green grass, and the earthy ground.

***

Osric Ch’au was much smaller than the average Uluskian, and dark with coffee coloured markings.  Or so the description on the ID records showed.  Not that Jared could compare real life with the hologram on the file.  There was no sign of Ch’au.

From his cursory look around, Jared assumed that Ch’au hadn’t, in fact, been at home in quite a while.

Jared tried looking in all three of the windows of small corrugated building, but, apart from the sparse furniture, there was nothing else of interest to see.

“Haven’t seen him for a while,” came a female voice from behind him.  He turned round to see a woman with a baby slung over one shoulder standing in the door way to a neighbouring house.  “School’s been closed for three days – since he didn’t turn up that morning.”

Somewhere deep in Jared’s consciousness a warning bell began to ring.

“When did you last see him?”  Jared asked, producing his bureau ID.  The woman looked at it with open hostility for a moment or two but then gazed back at his face.

“You the Uluskian agent?”  she asked curiously.

Jared nodded, flinching a little under her regard.  He was used to hiding his markings, but her eyes were searching them out, reassuring herself.

“I have a couple of questions to ask him,” Jared stated.  “When did you last see him?”

“Four days ago – in the evening,” she answered.

“Was he with anyone?” Jared pressed for more answers.

“Yeah,” she answered.

“Did you recognise him?” Jared asked patiently.

“No,” she replied.  Jared huffed a little in exasperation.

“Could you describe the person he was with?” 

“Not really – didn’t get a good look at him,” the baby started to grumble on her shoulder and she looked ready to finish the conversation.

“Well, thanks anyway,” Jared muttered gracelessly.

“I did notice he was human, though,” Ch’au’s neighbour grinned, “and they were packing up Ch’au’s rover.  That helpful enough?”

Jared tried not to take it personally as she shut the front door on him.

***

The rest of the Pellegrino’s team were still in bed - no doubt sleeping off the previous night’s celebrations - when Jared returned to the base to be picked up by Jenssen.  Jenssen’s Rover was a recent model and still gleaming but Jared eyed it suspiciously none the less.  Rovers were only still used on the less technologically advanced planets

The two men didn’t speak after Jared had briefly updated the sheriff on his visit to Ch’au’s house, but the silence wasn’t awkward.  Jared was mulling over everything that had happened in the last three days, particularly how he came to be in a rover, with an Uluskian sheriff, travelling into the depths of the Sanctuary hills when his career, his ambitions, lay back in the HQ and in accepting Collins as the perpetrator.   But for all his drive to succeed, Jared was still a man of integrity and this case had felt off since the moment he landed at the Space Port.  He had done some things in the past that he was beginning to feel ashamed of – perhaps the worst being to deny his heritage and he still felt confused about all that.  However, he had found his line when asked to disregard evidence, regardless of where that left his position with the Bureau.

And then there was Jenssen.  Jared felt even more confused about the local sheriff, with his sharp quips, devil-may-care attitude, and fierce sense of belonging.  He was everything that Jared had tried to turn away from, everything he really hated and abhorred about himself, but he still found himself breathless with want and caught with fascination and attraction.

Jared watched him covertly as the other man steered the Rover over the rough terrain, a frown darkening his features.  Of course, he still looked comfortable and at home at the wheel of the land vehicle, but then when had he ever looked anything other than coolly confident.  Somehow he always made Jared feel a mess in comparison, for all the sharply tailored suits versus the casual jeans and plaid shirts. 

The drive got worse – the track narrower and the surface pitted with deeper holes and ridges.  Jared’s muscles began to ache and the jerky, irregular motion made him feel a little nauseous.  The smallness of the cab left his long legs cramped. 

“How much longer?” Jared eventually asked when the ache in his legs started to become unbearable.  They had travelled decilengths into the Sanctuary, always climbing higher into the hills, leaving any signs of habitation long behind.

Jenssen shrugged ruefully, one hand still on the wheel.

“Dunno – not sure what we’re looking for really,” he answered Jared’s question.

The quiet took over the cabin again, and stayed that way for several chronos until suddenly Jenssen slammed on the brakes.  Jared braced his hands against the dash as his whole body lurched forward with the force.

“What the fu…” he began.

Jenssen was looking to his right, up an even smaller valley, dissected by a tiny stream.  It looked like every other valley they had passed.  He revved up the engine again and pulled the Rover off the track.

“What is it?” Jared continued to ask.

Jenssen nodded in the direction of the valley as his only response with his mouth tightly closed. Jared squinted as he followed Jenssen’s gaze.  He saw the long grasses moving gently in the breeze, the dancing water leaping over the rocks.  Nothing seemed amiss, but Jenssen was getting out of the Rover.  Jared opened his door to follow.

“Looks like the grass has been stripped from the hill,” Jenssen said finally, heavily, and then, he started climbing up beside the stream bed with an elegant agility and speed.  Jared took a deep breath, still not able to see what it was that had caught the Sheriff’s attention but trusting him regardless.  He started climbing up behind the other man.

It didn’t take long before Jared could see the earth coloured strips, carving up the hillside.  Someone had been up here stripping the turf from the hills, although for what purpose, Jared couldn’t even hazard a guess.  Jenssen had increased his speed.  Jared tried not to allow his focus to fall on Jenssen’s ass,  as the other man scrambled over some rocks further up the hill so he stopped for a moment to look back down to the Rover, to cool himself off. 

Suddenly, he heard a cry of distress.  Jenssen had fallen to his knees nearly a hundred unilengths further up the valley.

Jared quickened his pace until he reached Jenssen and then he saw what had caused Jenssen such dismay. In front of him were the great stripes of earth that he had seen from further down the hill, but each great scar in the turf contained a further wound, a deep, gouged out hole.   Jenssen was keening as Jared dropped to the grass beside him, his own horror and understanding of how the T’llen had been raped amping up his concern for the other man.   The pain of seeing these sacred hills vivisectioned in such a way had broken through Jenssen’s naturally cool demeanour.

“Jenssen!” Jared whispered, hands reaching out to frame the sheriff’s face.

“Jenssen!” he tried again, pulling the man into his arms to hold him, as he let his eyes wander over the desecration in front of him.  He didn’t need Jenssen’s anguish to feel the blasphemy.  He had walked the T’llen – maybe only once – but he had felt their peaceful beauty, and knew that somehow they had begun to heal his broken soul.  Seeing them carved up made him angry to the very depths of his being.  He took a deep breath.

“Jenssen!” he began again. “Jenssen! We have to find out what’s going on!”  He pulled away from Jenssen, who was even now faintly moaning.  It sounded like he was reciting a prayer, and then Jared realised with a shock that he recognised the quiet words.  He had last heard them at his father’s funeral.  They were the Uluskian prayers for the dead and Jenssen was grieving. 

The memory suddenly overwhelmed Jared – he and his mother hadn’t heard from his father for years, when a phone call in the night had informed them that he had been found dead.  Jared never knew the circumstances, and his mother had never offered the details.  He had been dragged unwillingly to the bewildering funeral, full of strange words, and a smoky, sharply stinking fire.  His mother had been the only human, amongst very few Uluskian faces.  Jared had been very young, and frightened, and resentful.  Listening to Jenssen’s rich tones sing the song of the dead now made him feel ashamed.  He stayed on his knees in front of him and waited for Jenssen to finish.

When Jenssen eventually raised his head, the green in his eyes had hardened as though they were two glinting gemstones.  He didn’t say a word as he got up off his knees and walked purposefully towards the nearest hole.  Jared, still letting the other man lead, followed him to the edge. The hole wasn’t large, but deep, obviously dug by hand with piles of turf and rubble piled up high on the other side.   The soil had been removed until the bedrock had been reached, and then the very core of the planet itself had been smashed into small pieces as the defilers had dug through even that.

“Mining!”  Jared exclaimed.  “These are test pits for mining.”

“But this is T’llen,” Jenssen exclaimed, his voice rough with emotion.  “It’s sacred.”  Disbelief echoed through his words, but Jared was sure.  He started to wander around through the pockmarked landscape leaving Jenssen to stare helplessly into the first pit.  The signs were all there - small piles of rocks that had been busted open,  a sample bag, a geologist’s laser-hammer abandoned, and the bright silver gleam of T’thonium sparkling in the sunlight were it had been uncovered.  Someone was looking for and had found a world’s treasure in the sacred lands that the humans had despised and the Ulusk’hai had revered.  Jared grabbed his digital recorder and started taking pictures.  His heart was racing and his head was spinning so he allowed his training to take over.  The consequences of finding T’thonium in T’llen land was immense and terrifying.

And then he caught sight of something even more abhorrent.  A dirty leisure shoe.  Jared moved closer to see.  

“Jenssen!” he called breathlessly, and was surprised when the other man appeared beside him so quickly and quietly .  Jenssen still looked haunted but there was a determination set in the angle of his jaw.  They looked at each other for a brief moment and then fell onto the pile of earth that was obviously burying the body, shovelling it away with their hands.  The stench proved the body had been concealed there for at least a couple of days.

Jared didn’t need Jenssen’s muttered “Ch’au!” as they uncovered the dead man’s face, to know who they were going to find. He had known the moment he had seen the shoe.

The two men slumped back onto their haunches and stared at the body. 

“Did Ch’au ask Ferman to come up here to see what was being done, or did Ferman approach Ch’au?”  Jared asked.

“Does it matter?”  Jenssen replied angrily.

“Yeah, I think so.  Either Ch’au suspected something was going on, stumbled on this site when dancing the T’llen and then invited a geologist to confirm his suspicions or Ferman was investigating for someone else.  Maybe he got cold feet and went to the UFF.”

“No human would be allowed on the reservation without being invited.”

“Okay,” Jared continued.  “So if not Ch’au, then who? That person is responsible for both murders, and for the desecration of T’llen land.”

The silence felt heavy between them as they both thought through the case.

“You understand what this means,” Jenssen said after a few moments.

Jared nodded. “Keeping the peace in the Sanctuary or any other Sanctuary is going to be impossible if the Ulusk’hai consider humans have desecrated their sacred lands,” he answered, “and T’thonium is the most valuable metal in the universe, highly prized by humans, and almost certainly there will be pressure for you to give up the T’llen.”

“We won’t,” concluded Jenssen.

“No,” mused Jared, “I didn’t expect you would.”

“But that’s not what I meant,” Jenssen looked directly into Jared’s eyes.  “You understand what this means for you?”

“Yeah,”  Jared closed his eyes, unable to keep himself together under Jenssen’s intense regard.

“You have to choose, Jared,” Jenssen pressed on.  “Are you human?  Or Uluskian?”

“I am both,” Jared bit back.  “This isn’t about which heritage I identify with, Jenssen.  This is about what is right and wrong.”   He looked into Jenssen’s questioning eyes.  “If you think I am going to act in any other way, then you don’t know me at all.”

He got up and stomped a few angry steps away.  He could feel Jenssen’s eyes on him the entire short distance, as he fought to regain control over his breathing.

“We need to know how Ch’au was killed. Collect the facts, keep investigating,” he said as he allowed the T’llen winds to sooth him.

“And we need to keep this quiet,” Jenssen added his own voice now less aggressive.  “Anyone finding out about this – and the consequences will be incendiary.”

Jared nodded and turned back to his companion, who was now looking  sheepishly back up at the taller agent. 

The previous wars with Ulusk’hai had been devastating, and the fragile peace that had existed since was now on their shoulders.  Their hands and hearts were heavy with the responsibility as they both got back down to work.

***

Jenssen had decided that it was dangerous for Jared to return to the Fed’s base that night, so Jared allowed himself to be persuaded to return to Jenssen’s home.  He was surprised to find that the sheriff lived in isolation like Old Man Beayvver but not at all to find that Jenssen lived simply, and sparsely, in a one room building clinging to the river bank like all the other houses in the Sanctuary.

They dropped their full evidence bags onto a clean, but old wooden table.

“Want something to drink?” Jenssen asked as soon as he was tired of staring at their day’s work. 

Jared nodded silently and watched as the sheriff pulled some beer from the fridge.

“Food?” Jenssen grunted as he handed over the bottle.  Jared shrugged.  He knew he should eat but his stomach was crawling with angst and nerves.

“There’s not enough evidence to prove anything,” Jared complained.

Jenssen wiped a hand across his face, a nervous habit that Jared had only noticed today.  “No,” he answered, “but we’re getting there.”

He bent down to rummage in a cupboard and pulled out a loaf of bread.  “I’ve got some cleveteen and suhtah fruit – will a sandwich do?”

Jared huffed causing Jenssen to look at him sternly.  “Fucking great tree like you needs to eat,” Jenssen smiled faintly to take the sting out of his words.  “Let’s get some rest and worry about this in the morning.”

Jared continued standing in the middle of the small room, as Jenssen made up the food, then stayed silently as a plate full of thick bread and meat slices was handed over to him. 

“Sit!”  Jenssen ordered.  Jared felt bruised and confused, but the pain of the day was etched deeply into the other man’s eyes, notwithstanding the attempt at normalcy.  Jared pulled himself together and collapsed into a surprisingly comfortable couch, and then felt his interest in food return as the sweet smell of the suhtah wafted up from his plate.  They ate in silence side by side, pausing only to sip at their beer.

The food settled Jared’s stomach and he was feeling less agitated as he neared the end of his bottle.  He jumped when Jenssen’s words broke the peace.

“I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to doubt your integrity.  Doesn’t matter how you see yourself, you have never given me cause to believe that you would do anything other than what is right.”  Jenssen spoke softly and sadly, all bravura and snark knocked out of him.

Jared smiled at the apology.

“It’s alright.  You were pretty cut up while we were out there – understandably. And I _am_ a Fed, so I can see where you were coming from.  But I won’t let you stand alone on this, please don’t doubt that.”  

Jenssen visibly relaxed and smiled back.  And then he reached out to trail gentle fingers down the side of Jared’s face.  Jared immediately felt his face suffuse with colour, and electricity spark at every touch.  Jenssen’s fingers followed the line of Jared’s markings under the hair that Jared purposely kept long.

“You shouldn’t hide these.  They are pale enough as it is,” Jenssen muttered, green eyes darkening as they tracked his fingers.

Jared swallowed hard.  “I had a treatment – a few years ago,” he stuttered,  “but since I’ve been here, the sun has been darkening them again.”

Jenssen’s hand stopped but didn’t move away.

“Why?  Why would you do that to yourself?” he asked sorrowfully.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Jared answered.  “You didn’t have to go to school being the ‘different’ one – not just different but despised because my Dad was Uluskian.  You don’t know what it is like to have people stare at you all the time, how hard it was to be something other than Uluskian.  I wanted a career – not in construction or janitoring like all the expatriated Uluskians – but a real one with a chance to be successful. But it was more than that - I thought they were ugly, that I was ugly.”

Jenssen responded, “You’re right.  I can’t understand what being half human/half Uluskian is like, and I am mad at your father because he was unable to guide you in the Uluskian way that is not shameful.

“Would you have the treatment again?”

“Are you asking me if I am beginning to accept the Uluskian half of myself,” Jared asked breathlessly, willing Jenssen to begin moving his fingers again.

“Not because I doubt you, or your loyalty, but because you do not seem happy in yourself.  Old Man Beayvver would say that you cannot be content if you are rejecting a part of who you are.”

“Trying living in the human world,” Jared said sharply.  Jenssen’s hand was drawn away.

“I have,” Jenssen answered simply.  “I spent several years whoring myself around the galaxy, returning only once I was too burned out to continue.  Walking and dancing the T’llen gave me back my self-respect, and my purpose for living.  I was lucky I suppose. My father was a proud Uluskian and guided me rightly so that I knew the way in order to come home.”

Jared stared in surprise.  The silence returned.

“and you’re not, you know.  You’re not ugly.  I think you are beautiful,”  Jenssen voice was gruff in the empty air.  Jared felt a swell of emotion, a warmth that threatened to overwhelm him.

“I wouldn’t.  Not now… I wouldn’t ever have another treatment,” Jared turned his upper body to fully face Jenssen across the couch.  Jenssen’s resulting smile just added to the heat.    “I still don’t know much about being Uluskian, but I am beginning to want to.”

Jenssen’s fingers reached out again, brushing Jared’s face with the slightest of touches.

“You told me I had to choose,” Jared continued to speak over Jenssen as he started to retract his earlier words. “No, you were right.  I do not have to choose who I am – I am half human and half Uluskian and that is enough.  But I do have to choose sides.” 

Jenssen continued to caress Jared’s face, bushing his fingertips along his forehead, and down the side of his cheek to his neck.  It was utterly distracting but Jared needed to say his piece, before the emotion completely overwhelmed him.  “I’m not choosing the humans, nor the UFF, but there is a middle way – your way.  I choose you, Jenssen.  I want you to teach me about Ulusk’hai, take me walking on the T’llen, dancing if we must, and I want to fight for Uluskian rights, and for keeping the T’llen safe and unspoilt.  I choose you…”   Jared’s heart pounded as he waited out Jenssen’s sudden stillness – everything laid out for Jenssen to pick over if he chose to do so.  And Jared had no idea, absolutely no idea, how Jenssen would react.

“Us,” Jenssen amended before his lips crushed against Jared’s.  “Choose us!” and Jared finally let his feelings take control as he was inundated with a wave of relief.

***

Pellegrino looked wary as he stepped out of his shuttle. 

Jared watched him walk around the vehicle before starting towards Jared, standing on the bank at River’s Bend.

“What do you need to show me?” Pellegrino asked with a fake insouciance.

“Sheriff Ackles called this morning with some interesting evidence,” Jared answered equally as carefully.

Pellegrino stopped irritation obvious in his features.

“Jeez, kid.  Can’t you just let it go?” he replied.  “It’s over.  Collins is going to be sent to the Penal Colony for a really long time, and our job here is done.”

“Sheriff Ackles is sure that the case is far from solved,” Jared frowned, and injected a touch of bewilderment into his voice.  “He told me to come out here and look at the laser burns.”

“For fuck’s sake, Jared.  He’s just a crazy Uluskian, with a touch too much sympathy for the UFF terrorists,” Pellegrino countered, his voice raising in tone and pitch, frustration and anger not very far from the surface.

“But he’s right to show me these,” Jared resumed as if Pellegrino hadn’t spoken.  “These scorch marks can’t have been made by any weapon the UFF could have laid their hand on.  The marks are new to me – never seen this kind of scorch mark before.”    

Jared walked over to the best preserved black stripe across the red mark and crouched down beside it.  He turned to look back up at his superior.

“Not sure what weapon made these marks,” Jared continued, “but Ackles said he’s found some other evidence that links these with another crime site he found elsewhere.”

“Where?” Pellegrino asked sharply.  Jared shrugged.

“Don‘t know,” Jared lied.  He was pretty impressed with his acting performance so far.  “Ackles requested that we meet him out at his place and said he’d give us the details then.”

Agent Pellegrino’s eyes were nearly bulging out of his head, and his skin had darkened into a puce colour. 

“If he thinks… I daresay he has nothing.  He’s just causing trouble for the sake of it.  But I’ll go and see what he wants – you know, liaise, keep the natives sweet.  No need for you to go – you go pack. We’re booked on the next Star Cruiser tonight.”

Jared ignored the irony of the Liaison Officer being side-lined, whilst the bigoted lead Agent went to do the diplomacy. But he put up a token protest, knowing full well that Pellegrino wouldn’t take him however hard he persuaded.

“I’m sure you’d love some more time with that pretty ass but I think you’ve done enough interspecies mixing for a while.  I can clear this up quickly and we’ll be off this nasty little rock in no time,” Pellegrino countered.

Jared didn’t answer as Pellegrino headed back to his shuttle.  He watched the vehicle rise in the air with baited breath which he let out as soon as he saw Pellegrino navigate back down the river.  Thanks to Jenssen, Jared had a short cut over the hills.  He’d be back at Jenssen’s place long before Pellegrino.  He suddenly grinned.  So far so good.

Neither Jared nor Jenssen knew if Pellegrino was implicated in the murders or not, but they knew enough to know that the agent was covering something up.  Osric Ch’au’s fatal wound had been caused by a Colt 98.4 Laser. The scatter of burn marks across Ch’au’s back were typical of the weapon when used at close range.  The scorch marks at River’s Bend were caused by the same weapon.  Jared was no ordinance expert but apparently Jenssen was.  He’d demonstrated his point to Jared first thing that morning, totally wrecking a soft padded armchair whilst doing so.  It was easy to draw conclusions.  The Colt 98.4 Laser was issued by the Federal Bureau and Jenssen had experimented with Jared’s own gun.

Hopefully the trap that Jared had just set would work, but it relied on him being Jenssen’s back up.  He jumped into his own shuttle and headed off in the opposite direction from Pellegrino.

***

After he landed behind Jenssen’s garage, Jared moved round so he was hidden behind some kind of shed in Jenssen’s garden.  Being on the river flat allowed Jenssen to grow a small patch of vegetables right in the middle of T’llen land, and he obviously took care of them.  The garden was lush and green, with the most enormous relonions and suhtah Jared had ever seen.  He was a little gobsmacked at discovering Jenssen’s green fingers, but on reflection, perhaps he shouldn’t be.  Jenssen seemed to Jared to be a living representation of all that was good about Ulusk’hai, almost as if Jenssen had been created from the T’llen soil itself and woven with its grasses. 

He hunkered down behind the shed, where he could get a direct sightline of Jenssen in the house.  Jenssen hadn’t looked up when Jared brought his shuttle to the ground, and he was busy scrolling through the holo-records.  Just which holo-records, Jared was too far to see, but he did notice how stiff and alert Jenssen was holding himself.  He didn’t seem nervous though – Jared was there and would protect him, and Jenssen trusted Jared.  At least Jared hoped that Jenssen trusted him.

There was still no sound of an approaching shuttle so Jared continued to watch the sheriff through the window.  Even in the shadows of the house, Jared could see Jenssen’s beauty.  In many ways, Jenssen was everything that Jared had hated about being Uluskian.  His markings were strongly delineated about his face, the almost feline grace in his movement looked unnatural, his height made him tower above humans, but they were all features that Jared had found strangely compelling from the very first time he had met him.  Watching Jenssen’s eyes spark with brilliant green when he looked out across the T’llen in pride, or when he explained some point of Uluskian culture to Jared was also scintillating.  How could he continue to despise it when he was so keenly drawn to it?

It hadn’t just been Jenssen.  Jenssen wasn’t the only reason why he had had a change of heart.  He had wanted to travel through his life inconspicuously but striding the T’llen following Jenssen had loosened his muscles from all those years of cautious, small movements.  The breeze had blown his hair back off his face, and the strength of the sun had straightened his back until he stood again to his full height.  And seeing the obvious injustices, and how the Ulusk’hai clung to the acceptable edges of their Sanctuaries so they could continue honouring their sacred land, had made him question everything he had ever been told or had learnt about Ulusk’hai.

But Jenssen was a key part - Jenssen, with his passion, and integrity, and whiplash sharp tongue.   Jared was happy to admit that he had fallen head over heels for the man who had, admittedly impatiently, began to show him the real Ulusk’hai and who had shown him the beauty in his own self.

***

_Jared was hard by the time Jenssen pulled back from the kiss.   Jenssen, himself, was looking a little shocked at his actions, eyes wide open, and quite significantly blown black with what Jared very much hoped was a matching arousal._

_“Uh… Jared?”  Jenssen asked tentatively.  Jared answered with his broadest smile and reached out to bring Jenssen back into his arms._

_The evidence lay unstudied on the table. Their theories and thoughts remained unsaid as Jenssen rose, seizing Jared’s hand and pulled him into his bedroom.  They fell in a tangle on the bed but if Jared had expected desperate and enthusiastic fucking then he was mistaken._

_Jenssen had slowly stripped him of his clothes, and had laid him out on his back in the bed.  He had then leisurely chased down every one of Jared’s tawny markings, the ones that mapped out across his face, chest and arms, mouthing warmly over Jared’s skin until Jared had sunk into boneless sensation and pleasure.  Each time he whispered, “You are so beautiful… beautiful…” until the words had wrapped themselves around Jared’s heart and began to make him believe._

_Slipping lower, Jenssen had breathed lightly over Jared’s cock, as it almost magnetically reached for him, before he touched his lips to the tip.  Jared arched his back seeking the promise of heat from Jenssen’s mouth, causing Jenssen to chuckle darkly._

_“Cool it, P’Nu,” he whispered as he fixed an arm firmly across Jared’s hips.  “We’ve got all night.”_

_“Stop fucking calling me that!” Jared gasped as Jenssen’s lips enveloped the head of his cock, then moaned as Jenssen’s laugh shot waves of vibration along his length. He tried desperately to thrust, his body urgently needing resolution, but both Jenssen, who was now teasing with delicate kisses and tiny licks along his length, and Jared’s own will were determined to make this last._

_Jenssen smile dreamily up the length of Jared’s body and pulled off just to say one more phrase._

_“This, Jayrred… this is who you are. Long and lean as an Uluskian should be, and painted with nature’s own patterns.  You are beautiful, don’t ever forget it!”  And Jenssen had spent the remainder of the night showing Jared how much he meant it, and Jared had finally accepted it._

***

Jared was roused from his memories of the previous night by the thwump thwump of an approaching shuttle.  Jenssen’s head had shot up, to gaze right out of the window at Jared, and only lowered it when Jared gave a small wave.  Jared’s own shuttle was hidden, and Jared was ready.  Jenssen went back to his holo-records.

Jared wasn’t able to see Pellegrino emerge from the shuttle nor head towards the door, but he watched as Jenssen turned and moved out of sight, and then he moved closer, crawling towards the window, and then crouching underneath.  He couldn’t see Jenssen now, but he could hear what was going on.

Pellegrino’s voice was smooth and calm as he greeted the Uluskian Sheriff.  Jenssen’s answers were equally as relaxed, as he guided Pellegrino nearer the desk, and the open window under which Jared was waiting.

“Saw Padalecki,” Pellegrino said.  “Told me you had some evidence.”

Jared heard the rustle of evidence bags, and then a clatter as the battery unit for the Colt 98.4 Laser they had found hit the table. 

“I think the Ferman’s killer was a Federal Agent,” Jenssen stated quietly, “and I think they also killed Osric Ch’au.  You’ll find his body up on the T’llen highlands, about forty-five decilengths from River’s Bend.”

Jared hated not being able to see the expression on Pellegrino’s face, but the icy quiet that followed Jenssen’s words was telling.

“The scorch marks at River’s Bend also match a Colt 98.4 and the pattern burns on Ch’au’s body, but the real clue is this battery.  We can trace the issue number back to the actual weapon and then you’ll have your man.”  Jenssen’s voice was laced with humour.  The fucker was really enjoying baiting Pellegrino.  Jared rolled his eyes.

“Interesting,” Pellegrino muttered, “but not conclusive.  The UFF have been hoarding illegal weaponry for years.  What’s to say they didn’t managed to land their hands on a Fed issue laser?”

“Apart from their scarcity, nothing I suppose,” Jenssen answered but his tone didn’t sound convinced.  “But I just have this gut feeling…”

Pellegrino huffed, and Jared sank back closer to the wall, as it sounded close, too close, to the window. 

“The famous Uluskian instincts, huh?”  Pellegrino sneered.  “What does your fruit-loopy, airy fairy nonsense tell you, Ackles?”

“That you killed both men,” Jenssen claimed, voice cold and firm.

Pellegrino’s bark of laughter sounded insincere and false.

“Me?  What the hell makes you think that?”

“You’ve been stationed here for four years despite the fact that you hate Ulusk’hai with a passion.  Conclusion – there’s something here making it worth your while.    You have no respect for the culture and therefore are absolutely the type of fucker who would desecrate T’llen land just for kicks, and your arrogance makes you think you couldn’t get caught, hence the careless evidence like this battery unit lying around.    I bet if I looked the issue number up, it would be tied directly to your weapon, Agent. You want more?”

“Still haven’t given me a motive, Ackles,” Pellegrino snarled back.  “You can’t convict me just because I haven’t paid up any speeding tickets and you don’t like me!”

“T’thonium,” Jenssen answered simply.  “Someone gave you a clue that there might be valuable minerals in our hills, and you went looking.  I know you invited Ferman to do some test excavation, but when he realised that it wasn’t just any old mineral but T’thonium, he got scared and went to the UFF.  You killed both him and his contact, Ch’au, because you didn’t want your deal with the council to be ruined.  You and the council plan to make yourselves very rich raping T’llen land for T’thonium.”

“You haven’t any evidence to support that fairy story,” Pellegrino contradicted but his voice was now less certain.  Jared was suddenly very sure that Jenssen’s guesswork was scarily accurate.

“I have a battery unit with an issue number on it,” Jenssen said implacably.

“Ahh… yes, the battery unit,” Pellegrino sneered. “Can’t be used as evidence if it’s gone missing!”

Jared heard the whine of a laser powering up, and got to his feet, a wash of adrenaline rushing through his body.

“Think you’re so clever, Ackles, but what do you think is going to happen next?  There won’t be any evidence left, and by the time your body is found, no-one will care.  Fucking Uluskians!   There’s all these riches out there, and you think its desecration to dig it up.  There are millions of square decilengths of empty land and you fucking won’t use it because its ‘special’.  It’s a fucking crime.  And T’thonium – don’t suppose you’ve got much use for that either, have you?”

Pellegrino was acing his villainous monologuing, and unaware of Jared creeping through the open side door, laser in hand and already raised to the back of Pellegrino’s head.  Pellegrino, himself, had his back to Jared and was waving his own laser in the direction of Jenssen, who was standing stoically, not a flicker of fear or concern crossing his face. 

“The government will consider T’thonium more valuable than a few hurt and betrayed heathens – do you think you can win this one?  Whether it’s me or someone else in another Sanctuary, that T’thonium will be found, and then you can say goodbye to your precious T’llen.”

“Maybe,” Jared said with a voice of steel.  “But it won’t be you!”  Pellegrino froze as Jared’s laser pressed coldly onto his temple.  “Pretty sure that this evidence, alongside your very helpful confession, will be very difficult to whitewash.”  Jenssen pulled his recorder from his pockets, waving it for a second before switching it on.

“ _There won’t be any evidence left, and by the time your body is found, no one will care…”_ Pellegrino’s voice repeated from the tiny speaker, tinny but clear.  Jenssen grinned at Jared.

Pellegrino lowered his laser.

“Really?”  He scoffed.  “At the moment there are only three people who know about the T’thonium – not even the council knows Ferman’s results yet – but by the time I am done, I shall make sure everyone in the galaxy knows.  You’ll have a hard time keeping the prospector’s off T’llen when that happens.”

“I think you underestimate how strongly we feel about our land,” Jenssen explained.  “And how much we’ve learned since the last wars.”

“You really did turned fucking native, didn’t you Padalecki?”  Pellegrino smirked as Jenssen moved forward to clasp the electronic tag around his wrists.  “Was his ass really that sweet?”

“It really was,” Jared’s eyes flickered to Jenssen’s and found warm approval shining back at him.  “But do you want to know the real reason?  Your patronising, bigoted attitude towards me finally made me see the light.  You’re nothing but a short, clumsy, dirty human, Pellegrino, and you will be going to be spending a lot of time in the penal colony. And just watch – watch and see how Ulusk’hai will fight to save the T’llen land.”

***

With Pellegrino locked in Jenssen’s detention cell in the Sheriff’s office back at the Sanctuary main habitation sector, Jenssen and Jared were able to return to Jenssen’s house to sit and wait for the Federal authorities to turn up and take over the case.  They both knew they had incontrovertible evidence that linked Pellegrino with the murders, and that the Government would have no option but to convict him.  But Pellegrino had been right about the T’thonium.  Humans would kill for the mineral, and certainly wouldn’t consider the views of a despised nation.  A fight was coming.  

Jenssen had already informed Old Man Beayvver, who was even now mobilising his contacts within Sanctuary 34 and beyond to the others.  The UFF needed persuading to take a different less violent path, but Jenssen was convinced that, in the end, there would be a battle. 

But Jared had another approach – the expatriate Uluskians, dispersed across the galaxy, who had lived amongst the humans and knew of their world.  This time Ulusk’hai had some understanding of the enemy hell bent to destroy what was sacred to them.  Jared felt the advantage in that, and knew that he, as Federal Agent, could be key in garnering their support.

“You still want to work for them?”  Jenssen asked as they settled down with beers and no little trepidation.

“Not sure that I will be given the chance after this,” Jared answered honestly.   “I’m going to ask to be stationed here permanently as the liaison officer, but I am more likely to be despatched to mining colonies of Chutwaer.”  Jenssen pulled a face of disgust.  “No, I won’t let myself get sent there.  I’ll resign before that happens.  But yeah, I fought hard to become the first Uluskian field agent, and I think I can still do some good in that position, help the Uluskian cause.”

“It’s not in their best interest to let you do that,” Jenssen was cynical of Jared’s chances.

“True,” Jared mused, and fell silent.

“What about us?”  Jenssen then asked a few moments later, with a very uncertain voice.

“Do you want there to be an ‘us’?”  Jared asked in return equally nervously.

“Well, you’re a pain in my butt, and you know nothing ‘bout being an Uluskian, but you’ve kind of grown on me…”  Jenssen’s words were delivered in an artful carelessness but there was an undercurrent of emotion beneath them.  Jared grinned happily.

“I asked you teach me,” Jared responded.  “You agreed.”

“You asked me when I was cock deep in your ass, P’Nu.  Can’t expect an Uluskian to make sensible decisions when his brains are exploding out of his dick.”

Jared laughed loudly, then hit Jenssen very hard. “Stop calling me that!” 

Jenssen yelled out in pain, giggled and then sobered quickly at Jared’s very stern face. 

“Seriously, I mean it!”  

“Sorry,” Jenssen muttered.  “It doesn’t mean anything, not now.”

“I’ll work for the Feds if they let me stay here.  I’ll leave if they try to send me some place else.  I can find a job here – maybe as a deputy or something – I do know the Sheriff and I have experience in law and enforcement.  Besides, you’ll need me if you are going to be the Uluskian leader I think you’re going to become.  I want to fight with you, Jenssen.  I chose you last night, and I haven’t changed my mind.”

Jenssen’s smile was small but heartfelt, then his face changed as his lips formed a lascivious grin.

“So let’s get started - the sacred art of Uluskian Tutopping, arcane but lively teachings on sex.  You’d better be prepared, Chu’so.  Uluskians skilled in the art of Tutopping have stamina that will keep them going all night, and techniques that will bring about orgasms that will melt your brains.  You won’t be able to remember your own name by the time I have finished the first lesson.”

Jared’s body flushed with a deep heat of want and willingly followed Jenssen to the bedroom.

“There’s no such thing as Tutopping, is there?” he asked as he entered the darkened room.  Jenssen was already stripping, his long lean, golden body gradually being uncovered for Jared’s delight.

“Does it matter, Chu’so?”  Jared was able to see Jenssen’s white teethed smile in the gloom.

“Not in the slightest,” Jared answered as he tangled himself up in Jenssen’s limbs.  “And you can call me that anytime.”

Chu’so – the one Uluskian word that Jared knew and had remembered from when he was very small. His mother had called him that, and he supposed she had learnt it from a time when she and his father had still found something in each other to admire.  She had stopped calling him that when his father had left the first time and she had become soured to everything that was Uluskian.  

It meant love.  Chu’so meant love. 

 

 

Fin


End file.
